Rommereim Organ Work Appears on Heavy Pedal CD

Blanche Johnson Professor of Music John Rommereim’s organ music is included on a Parma Recordings CD titled Heavy Pedal, Vol. II. Rommereim’s contribution to the CD, “Gesangvoll: Variations on a Theme by Beethoven,” is a companion piece to the final movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30.  

Rommereim says the title comes from Beethoven’s marking, “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung” (filled with song, with deepest expression). “Beethoven’s elegiac melody is the most noticeable aspect that is taken up in these variations,” he explains. “But in addition to the melodic theme, some of the distinctive textures that appear later in Beethoven’s piece are also evoked, such as the endless, languorous trills that resolve so delicately, leading into the final return of the theme in the conclusion of Beethoven’s sonata.”

Listen to Rommereim’s composition: “Gesangvoll: Variations on a Theme by Beethoven.”